👋 Good morning! Bryce Harper is a complete madman on the basepaths.

You take the good (stealing home) with the bad (getting thrown out by 35 feet trying to stretch a single into a double). I am not even sure poor Dusty Wathan puts up the stop sign for Bryce, he knows that dude is just gonna plow right though it.

But the best development here is that Bryce clearly reads the newsletter. After Edmundo Sosa’s clutch glove-hit on Monday night, I wrote about the only other walk-off catcher’s interference in the last 56 years of MLB: Manny Mota stealing home and forcing Johnny Bench to illegally intercept the pitch.

One night later, in the first inning, that is exactly what happened here with Carlos Narváez. Bryce stole home and was probably gonna score anyway, but rules are rules, and Narváez is not allowed to catch an actual pitch in front of the plate. The pitcher has to step off the rubber for that to happen. Otherwise, it would be complete anarchy. Can you imagine how ready J.T. Realmuto would be to intercept pitches when the Phillies bullpen is out there? J.T. would be crouched like Nolan Smith trying to time up the snap, in an effort to intercept some meatballs.

Anyway, Bryce, thank you for reading.

As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

Here we are, ready for another Eagles training camp. Video evidence below.

And as I have been saying all offseason, the Birds are boring right now… but in all the best ways.

I should clarify that statement, because “boring” mostly just means “predictable.” We at PHLY will be covering Eagles training camp exhaustively. What else are we gonna do in Philadelphia? This city loves football, regardless of if the Eagles are drafting in the top-five or hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. But the Eagles did hoist the Lombardi trophy, just this year in fact! We even did a three-hour podcast afterwards, plus we made some sick shirts and hoodies.

So, “boring” mostly means predictable and is only referencing the offseason. The Birds, this loaded football team we love, should be a lot of fun to watch when the real games start. But, and this is a good thing, there just is not a ton of conflict in July and August. I think this relatively smooth period is reflected in two ways…

But there will be plenty to talk about, like there always is during training camp. There will be a Paul Turner-type that fans fall in love with. There will be a Bo Wulf Camp Crush (BWCC). There will be practice notes. There will be 53-man roster projections. There will be preseason games, in which we watch Tanner McKee dominate for a quarter and then over-analyze Kyle McCord dropbacks. There will be Jalen Carter, wrecking one-on-one drills. Football is back everyone, and that is a great thing.

As I see it, there are 3.5 position battles at this training camp. I will rank them from the least open to the most open.

Linebacker: This is the half-competition, because you gotta imagine this position will belong to Jihaad Campbell when he is healthy. The Eagles did not draft a linebacker in the first round to have him ride the pine.

Vic Fangio said the coaching staff is first training Campbell as an off-ball ‘backer, but it is clear that the Eagles drafted Campbell with at least some curiosity about if he can follow the Micah Parsons LB-to-DE route. Regardless, Campbell is still recovering from March surgery on a torn labrum in his left shoulder and might be on the Cooper DeJean Memorial Delayed Training Camp Watch.

Nakobe Dean, still recovering from a torn left patellar tendon, will almost assuredly not play in training camp either. That leaves The Juniors — Second-year player Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and rookie Smael Mondon Jr. — to compete for the other off-ball linebacker snaps next to Zack Baun. And hey, if Campbell eventually moves to edge-rusher, maybe there is a starting spot down the line if one of these guys played well.

No offense to Smael, but you know who I am rooting for.

And I missed congratulating Oren Burks on getting his ring in the newsletter earlier this week. Congrats to Oren.

Right guard: These next two spots are about even in terms of how “open” they are. There will be a competition, but both battles seem set-up for a certain player to win. I am gonna rank this one as “less open” not because of the favorite, but because of the lack of competition behind him.

Big summer ahead for My Guy Tyler Steen (MGTS). This is the third straight year that he has competed for the starting right guard spot, and for him, hopefully the third time is the charm. Two years ago, Steen was on the other side of the “competition” that was set up for Cam Jurgens to win. Last year felt more open at the beginning, but it seemed apparent that Jeff Stoutland quickly fell in love with the idea of Mekhi Becton. Not incorrectly, either!

But with Becton now in Los Angeles, Steen is set up to win this job. The guy that we thought might push Steen for that spot, Kenyon Green, did not even take reps on the right side of the line during spring practices. Come on, Steeny, you can do it buddy!

Cornerback: The player that I am most excited to read about during training camp? Kelee Ringo.

The Eagles drafted Ringo in 2023 when he was incredibly young for his draft class. He is almost a full year younger than Quinyon Mitchell. We saw Ringo a little bit at the end of that disastrous 2023 season, and he showed some flashes playing under the brutal reign of The Pencil. Ringo is huge for a cornerback and has a lot of intriguing physical traits. He had an excellent college career at, wait for it, Georgia. The Eagles clearly want Ringo to win this job. Competing with him is Adoree' Jackson, who is 29 years old and provides a base level of competency that Ringo has to clear.

As Bo pointed out on Cuz’s show, whoever the No. 2 outside corner is, they better be ready to see the ball come their way. Offenses, looking to avoid Mitchell and DeJean, are gonna try to pick on that player.

Safety: Even in this case, is the battle really wide-open? Maybe not, but since Drew Mukuba is a rookie, I gotta imagine that he has more to prove even if he enters camp as the favorite.

Why is that? For starters, Fangio was here when the Eagles used a high pick on Mukuba and was not here when the Eagles used a high pick on Sydney Brown. Brown, who is a madman on special teams, also got leap-frogged by Tristin McCollum in the pecking order last year. For Brown, I just wonder if the lows are gonna be too low at a position where you gotta be consistent. McCollum is also theoretically in this competition.

And what happens if all of these guys stink? Free agent Justin Simmons, who starred for Fangio in Denver, spent all season basically begging to reunite with Uncle Vic in Philly. The Eagles went away from older stopgaps last season, and it worked out spectacularly well. But I just thought I would mention that possibility.

And if you want more on the most intriguing Eagles, Bo and ZB podded here.

Some extra depth on the defensive line: Man, that is a lot of Os in the edge-rusher’s name. And sadly, a former BWCC bites the dust in Lew Nichols.

Phillies 4, Boston 1: Thank you, Matt Klentak.

Second complete game this month, as the Phils pitching staff is really turning back the clock. And while I have understood some arguments over the past few months that Cristopher Sánchez’s stuff would play out of the bullpen, he has earned the right to be your Game 2 starter. Just dominant stuff.

Sanchy’s changeup is filthy. Remember a few years ago (2023), when the Braves were scoring a million runs, and in retrospect, probably cheating? Sánchez had a September start against Atlanta in which he threw 7.1 innings and gave up four runs, but struck out 10 in the process. Even in the early stages of Sanchy, you could tell that his changeup was becoming A Thing. And oh yeah, it is very much A Thing.

And now Sánchez is one of the best pitchers in baseball. What a story.

Besides Harper and Sanchez, the other highlight of the night? Nick Castellanos taking in the post-game Nelly concert in basically his full uniform. The man was legitimately getting down to Hot in Herre. I am surprised Bryce was not out there with him, Ride Wit Me is one of his 14 walk-up songs.

The two big picks sign: Signed and sealed. Gage Wood went for slightly under-slot, and then signed his contract while looking down at the paper. Savvy kid.

Wood signing for slightly under allowed the Phils to go wayyyyyy over-slot for Matthew Fisher. Remember y’all, the two most important picks for the organization were the first-rounder and seventh-rounder. That is the MLB Draft for you.

Shoutout to Jon Marks for the last year here, we all really enjoyed working with him.

The Phils go for the sweep against the Sawx, as we all ride the Luzardo Coaster again (7:05 p.m., ESPN). And across the street, the Eagles will have their first practice of training camp. Let’s go!

Your tentative Wednesday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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